


From the Deep

by Zerrat



Category: Final Fantasy XIII
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim, F/F, Pre-Femslash, Team Bonding, reluctant allies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-14
Updated: 2013-07-14
Packaged: 2017-12-20 03:27:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/882395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zerrat/pseuds/Zerrat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The WEAPONs had first hit Pulse three years ago, rising from the deep as the very planet itself turned against humanity. In order to fight the WEAPONs, Cocoon and Pulse united as one and created the Eidolon program - monsters to fight the monsters. </p><p>But an Eidolon is only as good as its pilots. Lightning isn't happy that she's been ordered to trust this Oerba Yun Fang with free reign to her head, heart and memories.</p>
            </blockquote>





	From the Deep

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thegadgetfish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegadgetfish/gifts).



> I went to see Pacific Rim last night. Within the first ten minutes I was wondering what a FLight oneshot would be like in this sort of universe, and when my girlfriend immediately turned to me as the credits rolled and said "AU?" I knew it had to be done. So, in the space of less than two hours I came up with this oneshot (a oneshot that could easily be a WIP if people like). 
> 
> The WEAPONs are the planetary defense systems present in FFVII, which have a nice physical and purpose similarity to the Kaijuu in this case, so I borrowed that element. 
> 
> This one is dedicated to Michelle (thegadgetfish) who is a huge fan of Pacific Rim and the person I had in mind while writing.

Claire "Lightning" Farron stretched out on her bunk in the dark, her hands tucked behind her head and stewing silently over the events of that day. To say she was _frustrated_ would be a major understatement. She was pissed with Amodar, pissed with the Eidolon program and pissed at the goddamn WEAPONs that had made all of it necessary. Before the WEAPONs, her life had been perfectly fine. She'd been able to keep her promise to her mother and look after Serah, and hell, she'd even liked her job with the Guardian Corps too. Of course, there had been the lingering threat of open war with Pulse, but that was a tense state of affairs Cocoon had lived with for centuries.

What had happened was _worse_ than open war – it had been an alliance by necessity. They'd been forced to unify against an enemy that was far too strong for either Cocoon or Pulse to deal with on their own, and in doing so, Lightning's whole life had been thrown into turmoil.

The WEAPONs had first hit Pulse three years ago. They rose from the deep, from the oceans off the coast of Western Kurrajong, and nobody had seen them coming. None had understood what was happening, and really, nobody had wanted to. Everyone on Cocoon had simply watched as the unknown monster flattened city after city down on Pulse, and hell, some had cheered as the Pulsian army had struggled to take it down at last.

Sanctum hadn't lifted so much as a finger to offer help. At that point, it would have been a public _uproar_ if they had. Everyone had been more than happy to leave the Pulsians to 'karmic justice'. Everyone had thought it was over.

Six months after what would later be called the "Sapphire WEAPON" was slain, Ultima WEAPON rose up from the oceans off the coast of Bodhum. Where it had come from, still nobody could say, but their purpose in the end had been obvious. The WEAPONs, Lightning had come to understand from the hurried briefings she'd attended as Cocoon prepared for all-out war, were designed to wipe out life so the planet could begin anew. They were part of the planetary defense systems when things got too bad.

In light of that, it was really no surprise that those WEAPONs had taken an approach that amounted to "all humans must die".

Somewhere along the line, Cocoon and Pulsian governments alike had realised the enormity of the danger ahead of them. That wasn't the part that Lightning had the issues with. She didn't have any problem with being forced to work in tandem with Pulse's armies, because pooling their resources was only logical. Distasteful, perhaps, but it made sense. But that alliance had meant that the Cocoon and Pulsian scientists had started to work together, and the fruit of their efforts had been the production of the Eidolons.

Mechanised robots based on the mythological messengers of Etro, they were the tools that Cocoon and Pulse were meant to use to begin the fight back in the war against the WEAPONs. They were state of the art, _perfect_ weapons of war.

_Weapons to fight the WEAPONs. Why not?_

The Eidolons were good news – they meant that humanity stood a _chance_ even when the planet itself seemed to want to do away with them entirely. No, Lightning's issue was much more personal and selfish. No, the part that really _galled_ her was her own forced involvement in that program as the armies searched desperately for pilots compatible with their monster machines. Lightning hadn't signed up for it, and it had been under icy protest that she'd even turned up for the testing phase.

One of close to a hundred candidates from Cocoon and Pulse, she'd been tested and worked until she'd thought she'd go insane, and then she was tested some more. 

_Do it for Serah,_ Lightning had told herself again and again, as sweat had run into her eyes and she'd pushed herself to her limits.

In the end, against all odds, she'd been selected to pilot the Eidolon Odin. While that was an impressive feat, no single pilot could handle the neural load of an Eidolon – not even someone as stubborn and strong-willed as herself. Two pilots were needed, two pilots to fuse mind-to-mind and become synchronised parts of a much greater whole.

After extensive examination, rigorous workouts and tests on everything from personality to hypothetical judgement, today, Lightning had finally met her counterpart, the person which the program had deemed she had the strongest neural compatibility with. Before that day, Lightning had been resigned to her new role. She'd been prepared to accept whatever determination came her way.

She hadn't been prepared to meet her _Pulsian_ partner. As soon as the woman – Oerba Yun Fang, she vaguely remembered Nabaat telling her – sat down next to her, Lightning had felt it. There was a _draw_ , yes. But she knew the kind of person she'd just been partnered with. Lightning could see it in the woman's every line and muscle – she was arrogant in a way that seemed deliberately calculating, her gestures and even the way she took up more than her fair share of the space grated against Lightning unreasonably.

Maybe it was just the culmination of months of harsh training, testing and being forced into a role not of her choosing. Maybe she was just sick of the snide whispers of 'viper' from every Pulsian she'd met in the program, but in the end the 'why' hardly mattered. Lightning's anger had surged, and she hadn't been able to stomach the idea that _that woman_ would be allowed in her head, have all of her most precious memories to rifle through at her whim.

It was nothing short of humiliating, and she wasn't about to sit back and allow it to happen. She'd waited until the formal briefing was over and Yun had left the room before she voiced her complaints.

Nabaat hadn't wanted to hear it, though, and Lightning hadn't even been granted permission to speak freely.

"Sergeant Farron," Nabaat had said in that cool, clipped tone that Lightning knew to mean 'trouble'. "I understand your _reservations_. Believe me, I do. But believe me when I say this, Sergeant – you will work with Oerba Yun Fang, whether you get along with her or not. We will not _waste_ a drift of your potential merely to sate whatever resentment you have towards the program as a whole."

"Ma'am –" Lightning had tried, but Nabaat had turned to her, her eyes hard.

"The Eidolon program needs you. If you want to make a difference to your sister's future… then you will _comply."_

That had been the end of it, and Lightning had taken it as the dismissal it was.

And now, there she was, lying in the dark and stewing in her steadily rising anger. They could have chosen any other potential pilot – Eden, even another pilot from Pulse, if that was how it had to be – but Yun? According to the file that Nabaat had told her to take on her way out of the briefing room, the woman was nothing short of dangerous. Impulsive, moody, biased against Cocoon to some fool-hardy degree and more inclined to leave things to luck than to strategy, Lightning knew her gut instinct was correct on this one.

She could not have picked a _worse_ personality to have had forced on her than Yun.

_This is ridiculous… This has to be a mistake._

If the drift score was so important, it would be unlikely the brass would let this enforced partnership fall through just yet. Not until they'd delivered a few spectacular failures as 'proof', Lightning realised with a bitter twist to her mouth. Fantastic – she'd get to risk life and limb proving what was already obvious to her.

A knock sounded on the door to Lightning's private room, loud and insistent in spite of the fact that it was one in the morning and all sane personnel not on duty would be sleeping. Her eyes cracked open, and her irritation spiked.

"Open up, Farron. I know you're in there." The impatient voice was Yun's, and Lightning wasn't exactly surprised that the Pulsian woman would lack the social grace to wait for a more reasonable hour. Her lip curled – perhaps if she feigned sleep, Yun would just give up and leave her alone. There were a few beats of silence, before Yun began to knock again.

"It's important," the woman said, sounding as frustrated as Lightning felt.

 _This is bullshit._ Lightning spat silently, and she swung her legs over the edge of the bed. She blindly felt around for her trousers, slipping them on after a few fumbling tries and pulling a tshirt on over her head. She lurched over to the door and hauled it open, blinking against the light in the bright hallway and focusing on Yun. 

"What do you want?" Lightning kept her voice neutral, professional and not at all as hostile as she felt, but the other woman's eyes narrowed regardless. She watched Yun lean against her doorframe, trying to focus on anything other than that same _pulling_ sensation in her chest that had been present in the briefing. She settled for looking down the hallway, feigning boredom.

After a few moments of consideration, Yun wet her lips and sighed. "Scowl all you want, but we need to _talk_."

Lightning was not _scowling_. "We're talking. At one in the morning. Cut to the chase."

"You don't like me, Farron." Yun didn't phrase it as a question.

"No." Lightning crossed her arms. She wasn't about to apologise over the truth, but it didn't feel like Yun expected her to. "Why should I? As far as I'm concerned, those idiots who decided we'd pilot an Eidolon are dead wrong. There's more to teamwork than a goddamn _drift_."

"You're telling me." Fang sighed, rubbing her face with her palm. Her expression looked tired, and her green eyes grim. "I think you already know that the neural link is going to mean a hell of a lot more in combat than everything else. We're going to be connected right down to our thoughts –"

"I know." Lightning cut in, her anger flaring up in spite of herself. She was getting _lectured_ by the woman who was meant to be her partner! "Eden, I've taken the same classes you have."

"And _listened_ to maybe half of what you needed, I'd wager." Fang's voice was tight, and forced out from between her clenched teeth. "Look, I don't like the idea of having a damn viper in my head any more than you want a 'savage' in yours. And no, we don't need to _like_ one another to have a good drift. But it'd make working with you outside the Eidolon a hell of a lot easier if you'd make a damn effort to try."

Lightning's eyes narrowed, and she waited for Yun to continue. In spite of her supposed misgivings, she was advocating for the partnership? Fantastic. Lightning turned to shut the door in Yun's face. As if sensing that their conversation was about to be brutally cut short, Yun's hand shot out and slammed into the cheap, wooden door, forcing it to remain open.

"If we _work_ ," Yun ground out, her eyes blazing with barely restrained anger, "We have a chance to make a difference, and not just a little bit. We could save _millions_ , Farron."

 _Millions. Like Serah. Like the people in the towns of Cocoon, holed up all scared in their houses while a WEAPON tears down our paradise._ Lightning's breath had frozen in her throat, her memories suddenly filled with the destruction of her home as Ultima WEAPON razed the lot of it. She and Serah had only barely escaped that attack with their lives…

"Yeah." Lightning exhaled then, and finally her tension began to ease and fade. "You're right. We could… we could make a difference."

"Of course I'm right." Yun snorted, her anger buried as though it had never been there at all. Lightning wasn't fooled. "Starting tomorrow, we're partners in this thing, whether we like it or not. Better to make the best of a bad situation, no?"

"I still don't trust you in my head." That was the crux of Lightning's issue with the Eidolons, the neural links, the _partner_. Trust. She was going to be left open and exposed to a complete stranger. How was she just supposed to accept the Corps' demand that she lay that down?

"All the more reason to get to know me." Yun smiled, but the expression was a forced one. "For what it's worth, I don't trust you either."

The woman extended a hand towards Lightning – an offering of peace. Savage to viper, an opportunity to start out from scratch and hopefully put their issues behind them. Lightning looked down at that hand, swallowing hard. Yun was going to be allowed in her head… allowed to see _everything_.

_We could save everyone._

Lightning clasped Fang's hand, surprised at the woman's warm, gentle grip. She exhaled, looking up and meeting those flat, cagey green eyes deliberately. She could do this. For the world, for Serah, for the future - she'd work with whoever she needed to. And if that was Fang…

"To mistrustful partners," Lightning tried, and Fang barked a laugh at the comment.

"You've got a mouth on you," Fang said after a moment, withdrawing her hand from Lightning's and tilting her head to the side. Her smile looked a little more genuine, now. "I like that."

"Perhaps this can work after all." Lightning rested her hand against her hip, a reluctant smile curling the corners of her mouth. If she could learn to get along with Fang, then perhaps she could learn to get along with Snow, too. That'd be a right miracle. "I'll see you tomorrow, then."

"Bright and early, right?" Fang didn't look particularly enthused at that idea, especially given the current time, and she offered Lightning a casual wave as she set off down the base corridor. "I'll see you 'round, Lightning."

Lightning watched her leave, still dreading the neural connection she'd need to make. Fang had made some valid points. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't formed with a complete stranger, and it wouldn't be as though Lightning would be the only one left completely open to the prying eyes of another. Fang would be just as open, just as exposed, all of her vulnerabilities, strengths, dreams and fears on the line.

This _thing_ with Odin and the Eidolons was going to be difficult enough without making the partnership a living hell. She owed this thing a good shot.

Lightning always had liked a challenge.

**Author's Note:**

> If you'd like updates as to current projects or just want to chat, feel free to come visit me on my tumblr: [zerrat](http://zerrat.tumblr.com/) (personal) and [zerratwritesstuff](http://zerratwritesstuff.tumblr.com) (writing)!


End file.
